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The Lovin' Spoonful to play Center for the Arts

Photo courtesy of the artistThe Lovin' Spoonful plays CSI's Center for the Arts on Nov. 13.STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- By the time founder John Sebastian played Woodstock, he had left rock band The Lovin’ Spoonful. But bandmate and current lead singer Joe Butler was not far away.

"I was at Woodstock but certainly not on the stage," says Butler, 68. "I was in the mud and the guts and the gore with the civilians."

Butler’s populism isn’t surprising, and you’ll likely see and hear some of it at 8 p.m. Nov. 13 when The Lovin’ Spoonful plays the College of Staten Island’s Center for the Arts, 2800 Victory Blvd., Willowbrook.

After all, the drummer and vocalist has been making his home in the city long enough to remember enjoying a Greenwich Village full of folkies and bohemians. He’s got a sense of humor about his generation though: One of his early bands before Spoonful was called The Sellouts — a joke on the folk movement’s accusations of betrayal leveled at anyone playing rock ‘n’ roll.

The good-humored drummer and vocalist sure joined up with the right musical outfit. The Lovin’ Spoonful — named after a Mississippi John Hurt lyric — had some serious subsequent rock ‘n’ roll hits, like "Summer in The City" and "Do You Believe in Magic."

Sebastian left the band near the end of the 1960s to pursue other musical projects, and Butler eventually moved from behind the drum kit to front the band. Still playing with original bassist Steve Boone and multi-instrumentalist Jerry Yester, Butler says The Lovin’ Spoonful of today sticks with a live format that has always worked.

"Sometimes I’ll peek at somebody else’s set list and they’re doing six songs in 40 minutes," says Butler. "We do the three-minute format. Leave people wanting more. It’s exactly how it used to be. Everybody gets to strut their stuff and give it over to the next guy — like basketball."

Still a resident of Manhattan’s West Village, Butler’s seen his part of the city change drastically.

"The West Village? We’re a destination now," Butler says with a chuckle. "Little streets and cute little spots, nothing over five stories — those days are gone forever. And at the risk of being an old fart, it’s way too noisy. Crazy noisy. And everybody’s a model or a millionaire."

Tickets for the band’s Staten Island show are $35 and $40. For more information, call 718-982-2787 or visit CFAshows.com.